"It’s a measure of the man," said O'Neill. "There was no way he wasn’t going to be playing today.

"Eoin broke his thumb last week and he just felt he could get through - we felt he could get through along with him and he played as much as he could and put in a real stellar performance, considering.

"There were obviously some parts of his game that he couldn’t execute but that was far superseded by the brilliant things he did in marshalling that defence for large periods.

"It’s most likely he won’t be available in two weeks time but we’ll wait and see."

As O'Neill pointed out, the last five years have seen the beaten Leinster finalists bow out in the next round.

And the Kildare supremo admits he has a job on his hands to lift his players after this nine point loss to the Dubs.

"It will be tough," said the Newbridge native. "We didn't come here to play a defensive game and to not give it a go, and we were very certain of that once we won the semi-final.

"We all agreed - players, management and back room alike - that we were really going to go after this.

"So we invested a lot of time, effort and sacrifice into it - there will be a lot of hurt in the dressing room, for sure.

"They they need some time, some space to let some steam because God, they deserve it and they have earned it.

"We'll get back to work this week and really give it a good go. It will be a mighty test.

"Somebody said to me that the last five Leinster losers have gone out in the next round and that's just tough after a defeat, but sometimes it can be the scars of a horrific defeat by Dublin.

"I don't think we'll have that scar - but we'll definitely have that scar of disappointment. We'll see how we can build ourselves up again."